Ferrari would welcome Schumacher to FDA "with red carpet"

Ferrari says it would welcome Mick Schumacher to its young driver academy with a 'red carpet', after admitting it has been impressed with the youngster's progress.

Schumacher, the son of seven-time world champion Michael, is stepping up to the European Formula 3 Championship this season with Prema.

Mercedes has already been linked with a potential move to sign up the 17-year-old to its young driver programme, and now Ferrari has said it too would like to have him as part of its Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA).

I know nothing of his abilities, but just because his father was a great driver, will he be? Ralf wasn't too impressive...

Ralf has six wins to his name. He wasn't a bad driver in my opinion and if he'd raced in an era without Michael there, who knows how many more he might have.

Mick is very promising so far. He had a good debut season in ADAC F4 in 2015, finishing as the top rookie comfortably. In 2016 he competed in German (ADAC) and Italian F4 and just missed out on both titles, finishing runner up. He took a load of wins, a few of which were from the back of the field (a 30 odd car field, no less) after mechanical issues or penalties had affected his qualifying. He had a few mechanical issues through the season, plus a number of crashes that weren't his fault. He made a couple of mistakes himself but was generally very impressive. If he had concentrated on just one series, I think he would have won the title.

This year he is promoted to F3 with the Prema PowerTeam. They won Championships in both Italian and German F4 (both with Mick), F3, and GP2. They've held the F3 title since 2013, so based on that alone, Mick is in with a good shout this year.

Prema are quite closely tied with Ferrari and have another of their FDA drivers alongside Mick in F3 this year. We also just promoted another Prema driver, Antonio Giovanazzi, from GP2 to our reserve driver.

I have to believe the same red carpet put out for Michael's comeback and retiring @ Merc will be ready and willing for his son also. It remains to be seen if the German home team can sway the boy to his father's former team?

This is not a news site. This is a forum where every piece of news, rumor & wishlist is debated & discussed. Do not fingerpoint incase someone has missed citing the source. Thank the poster for his/her time taken to post the article & start a discussion.

This is not a news site. This is a forum where every piece of news, rumor & wishlist is debated & discussed. Do not fingerpoint incase someone has missed citing the source. Thank the poster for his/her time taken to post the article & start a discussion.

Mick has alot of pressure on his back just by his last name only.....let's hope his performance is based on merit and not name or "emotional" pressures from fans and marketing. I hope all of us can just let him work at his own pace....sure would be AWESOME to see his dad coaching him and being along his side.....I'm sure his dad would be at every race and seeing him win would bring a tear or two to his eyes.

I believe ability should get you in the academy not your name. If he is as good as the best then definitely give him the chance, but do not make the mistakes of old where nepotism and wasting large amounts of cash on fruitless pie in the sky dreams was the norm. If he is good enough, then it would be fantastic having him at Ferrari, but not if having him means slamming the door on a better but unknown driver regardless of how good the PR would be.

I believe ability should get you in the academy not your name. If he is as good as the best then definitely give him the chance, but do not make the mistakes of old where nepotism and wasting large amounts of cash on fruitless pie in the sky dreams was the norm. If he is good enough, then it would be fantastic having him at Ferrari, but not if having him means slamming the door on a better but unknown driver regardless of how good the PR would be.

I believe ability should get you in the academy not your name. If he is as good as the best then definitely give him the chance, but do not make the mistakes of old where nepotism and wasting large amounts of cash on fruitless pie in the sky dreams was the norm. If he is good enough, then it would be fantastic having him at Ferrari, but not if having him means slamming the door on a better but unknown driver regardless of how good the PR would be.

Agreed. Sometimes, as they say, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, sometimes it's miles away. We already had a Ralf Schumacher and a Nelson Piquet Jr. If he is close to his father's skill, he will get in on his own merit, if not, his name should not be his ticket into the tent.

I hope he takes his time before he comes to F1, the kind of pressure on him once he steps into F1 would be immense indeed and crippling for some people.
I wish him the best though. (I would love it if he joined Ferrari one day and kicked Hamilton's behind like his Dad did to Hill etc etc.)

I hope he takes his time before he comes to F1, the kind of pressure on him once he steps into F1 would be immense indeed and crippling for some people.
I wish him the best though. (I would love it if he joined Ferrari one day and kicked Hamilton's behind like his Dad did to Hill etc etc.)

Quite agree, especially your last comment! He shows promise for sure, and is possibly already on Merc's shopping list being German, but it doesn't look like he's another Mad Max just yet. Depending on what this season brings with Seb and Kimi and what transpires for 2018, I'd still love Giovinazzi to be given a racing chance, an Italian in a Ferrari is what dreams are made of!